


I believe in you

by dreamscomeslow



Category: The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, another fic full of fluff, to heal our little hearts that TDC broke
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-05
Updated: 2018-03-13
Packaged: 2019-03-27 12:36:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13881006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamscomeslow/pseuds/dreamscomeslow
Summary: Where Thomas meets Newt in a restaurant and then keeps on running into him, and becomes more and more interested in the blonde.Or when a blonde stranger believes in Thomas and supports him no matter what.





	1. Family reunion

**Author's Note:**

> Guess who's back?? Long time no see I know, but TDC brought me back into the fandom on tumblr (you can find me here btw: tiffanymaxwels.tumblr.com) and since I should study for my exams well... let's say writing fanfiction is somehow a good way of procrastinating, isn't it? ^^ Anyway, not sure where this is coming from but here it is. Enjoy! :)

 Thomas’ right leg wouldn’t stop jolting, causing his dinner table to move slightly.

“You okay there?”

The brunet jumped in surprise and turned his head so quickly he thought it would detach from his body. “Uh… yeah. Why?”

The man sitting at the table next to his simply nodded towards his leg.

“Oh, sorry. I guess I’m kind of jumpy.” Thomas mumbled, stopping the jerky movement.

“It’s fine.” The other shrugged. “As long as you don’t do it again.” And he went back to scribbling on the papers spread out on his table.

Thomas started biting his nails, he was now realizing how nervous he really was.

“I’m supposed to have lunch with my mom.” He blurted out and then he just couldn’t stop blabbering. It was always like that with him. “I haven’t seen her in a year. We had a pretty big fight the last time we saw each other and I don’t know how today is going to go.”

The blonde raised an eyebrow, turning his attention back to Thomas. He was watching him so intensely, Thomas didn’t know what to do so he kept on talking. “And she’s already 10 minutes late. Which never happens, my mom is always on time.”

A small smile displayed on his listener’s face and Thomas was quite sure he was internally laughing at him. Well, he had the right to. After all, what kind of person told his entire life to a perfect stranger?

“Sorry, didn’t mean to bother.” He muttered, his cheeks turning red with embarrassment.

“No, it’s fine. I know a bit about family issues and though reunions.” The blonde shrugged before holding out his hand. “I’m Newt, by the way.”

Thomas gaped for a minute before shaking his hand, closing the gap that separated their tables. “Thomas.”

“So Thomas, do you think you’re mom’s making you wait on purpose?” Newt turned fully to him, his back lying on the wall behind him, his left arm leisurely laying on the back of his chair. There was some kind of sparkle in his eyes that Thomas couldn’t define.

“I don’t know, probably.” Thomas shrugged and just speaking with Newt made him feel lighter, like a weight had been taken off his shoulders. He hadn’t talked about this with any of his friends, or his girlfriend for that matter. “I wasn’t sure I’d come, maybe she’s hesitant too.”

“What did you fight about?” The question was rather personal but it was Thomas who had started speaking in the first place. And he found out he didn’t mind answering.

“I wanted to drop my studies to create my own company and she felt like it would be a disaster. Didn’t trust me enough I guess.”

“Or maybe she wanted you to have a diploma in case things turned badly, so you could find a secure job?” The reply came back immediately and Thomas froze, his eyes widening. It took him weeks to realize that back then, with the help of his friends, and this guy could come up with the answer in a few seconds.

“Man, where were you a year ago?” Thomas laughed, shaking his head in disbelief.

Newt kept on smiling mysteriously. “So, what did you do in the end?”

“Well, I came to the same conclusion as you and thought my mom was probably right. I got my diploma two weeks ago.” He preferred not saying it took him longer to figure out what was going on inside his mother’s mind. “It actually gave me time to think my company through.”

“What’s your idea?”

“Well, uh, I wanted to build a gigantic theme park for adults. I would have called it The Maze. But it seems pretty ridiculous now.” Thomas rubbed the back of his neck, feeling a bit uncomfortable. It had been a while since he talked about his project to someone and he felt kind of stupid. It wasn’t anything revolutionary. “I mean, there are thousands of theme parks already, and I’ve actually got hired in a big architect’s office thanks to my internship. I’m starting work in a week.”

Newt cocked his head to the side, carefully watching Thomas. His expression was indecipherable and Thomas was about to ask him what he was thinking about when he heard his name.

“Thomas.”

His mother was standing in the entrance of the restaurant, her eyes filled with tears. She rushed to him and he just had time to stand up before she embraced him into a tight hug. She kept on stroking his hair, whispering into his ear how she was happy to see him and how proud she was he graduated. Thomas let his body relax slightly in his mom’s arms, feeling part of the apprehension that had grown inside of him during the last weeks melting away. He hugged his mother back and let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

That’s when he saw Newt, over his mother’s shoulder, winking at him before opening the restaurant door to disappear into the street.

Thomas frowned but didn’t get time to think about it. His mother was pulling away to take a look at him. It had been over a year since they hadn’t seen each other, after all. They had kept contact through texts sure, but their conversations were never getting very too personal. A message to ask how the new teachers were, another to ask if everything was alright at his mother’s job. Not even a phone call for New Year’s Day. Thomas had spent the Christmas holidays with his girlfriend at that time, Teresa.

“Your father would be so proud of you too, you know?” His mothers’ words brought him back to reality and he felt his heart sank at the thought. He remembered building huts in the garden with him when he was a child. That’s why Thomas had wanted to become an architect in the first place. Those were some of his favorite childhood memories, along with eating cookie dough when his mother baked or going sledging with his little brother Chuck. But Thomas would never be able to spend time with his father anymore. He had died of cancer when Thomas was just nine years old.

A single tear rolled down his mother’s cheek. She quickly wiped it away and chuckled lightly. “Look at you, I’ve just arrived and you’re already making me cry. I’m going to freshen up a bit in the bathroom, would you please order something for me? The trip was long and I’m rather hungry. Besides, you know what I like.” With that, she headed towards a waiter to ask where the bathroom was located.

Thomas slowly sat back and took a menu. He had no idea what the restaurant was offering as it was his first time here. He didn’t want to bring his mother to the restaurants he usually took Teresa. The memory of their breakup was still hurting a bit too much to his liking. It had been over four months but she had been his longest relationship after all. They had met during their first week of college and started dating a few months after.

Soon enough Thomas realized he didn’t even comprehend what he was reading, his mind too distracted by all the emotions he was feeling. His father, and now Teresa. He put the menu down and, without thinking, he headed his look towards the table next to his.

The brunet squinted his eyes as he spotted a small folded paper, with something written on it. Too curious for his own good, Thomas quickly glanced around before reaching for the paper. His eyes widened when he realized it was his name that was neatly calligraphed. He carefully opened the piece of paper, as if something was going to jump out of it, but only a few words were lying there.

 

**“ _The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”_**

**I hope to have the chance to visit _The Maze_ one day.**

**Newt**

 

 


	2. Girlfriend

“I’m telling you, this is the best stew I ever ate. You’re gonna love it.”

“Okay Thomas, I get it. You can stop talking about it now since, you know, we’re already there?” Brenda rolled her eyes and pointed at the restaurant.

The outside was quite sober with a simple dark grey façade and _The Glade_ written in gold. Thomas had really enjoyed his meal here with his mother a few weeks ago and he wouldn’t shut up about it ever since. He didn’t had the chance to come back yet but when Brenda had said she wanted to try a restaurant a little outside of town for their weekly lunch, he had done everything in his power to convince her to eat at _The Glade_.

And maybe, just maybe, Thomas was also hoping to see Newt again. But what were the odds in a city like Chicago?

The doorbell sounded like a bird whistling when Thomas pushed the door open to let Brenda go first. They headed towards the counter where a waiter showed them an available table, next to a window.

Thomas scanned the whole room but there was no sign of the blonde he had met a few weeks ago. He couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed. He hadn’t stopped thinking about his note and wanted to ask him the meaning of it. Did he think Thomas’ idea was a good one? Or just that he should at least try it so he wouldn’t have any regret later?

“Thomas?” Brenda called, her deep brown eyes questioning. “What were you thinking about?”

“Oh, nothing important.” Thomas simply shook his head, focusing back on Brenda. “Sorry, what were you saying?”

Brenda stayed still for a couple of seconds, scrutinizing her boyfriend face before shrugging. “I saw Jorge the other day, he said my tests results were excellent and the company would definitely take me as an apprentice in September. I can’t believe it’s finally happening. I mean, you’re all getting out of college with a diploma and a job while I still have plenty of training hours to do before I actually become a pilot. But Jorge thinks in a year or max eighteen months I’ll be ready. I’ll finally be able to fly on my own. Literally.” A little laugh escaped her lips, her eyes full of stars.

“Wow, that’s really exciting. I’m happy for you. I know what it means for you to work full time with Jorge.” Thomas smiled, truly glad Brenda had gotten the place at Jorge’s company. She had already tried at the beginning of the year but hadn’t been hired due to her lack of experience. She was so passionate about flying that she had told her whole story to Thomas in less than ten minutes the first time they went out together. Thomas had met her during his internship at the architect’s office where she worked part-time as a secretary to pay her training courses.

“Yes, Jorge is an incredible mentor and that’s just the best opportunity I could have gotten. I can’t wait to start!” Brenda took a look at the menu before looking back at Thomas. “Anyway, you said we were having the stew, right?”

*  *  *

“Admit it!”

“Okay, fine, I surrender! It was the best stew I ever ate. My compliments to the chef.” Brenda bowed with a laugh. “You can be so childish sometimes I swear. I’m gonna go to the bathroom, it’s your turn to pay right?”

 “Yes, it’s my turn. You go while I pay. But you should know people love when I’m childish.” Thomas stuck his tongue out playfully.

He put his jacket on and took his wallet before heading to the counter. Brenda shook her head in amusement before going to the opposite direction, her purse swaying against her hip.

“I don’t know what the secret ingredient is but you’re stew is absolutely fabulous.” Thomas said to the waiter as he counted the bills to pay.

“You can ask Frypan, our chef, but I doubt he’ll ever say it.” The waiter laughed while searching for change. Thomas stopped him with a sign.

“It’s fine, you can keep it.”

“Oh, thanks.” The man seemed genuinely surprised. “If only all our customers were as generous.”

Thomas shrugged the compliment off before looking towards the bathroom door. Brenda was nowhere to see. “Frypan, uh? That’s definitely a name for a chef.”

“Just a nickname but we all think it suits him well.”

“I bet you do.” Thomas smiled, curious to know the story behind it but afraid to sound be rude by asking.

The doorbell rang behind Thomas and before he could turn around, he heard the waiter speaking. “Ah Newt, you’re a bit late today. You’re taking the usual?”

Thomas’ entire body froze and he wondered how he should salute the man. He really wanted to talk about his note but didn’t feel comfortable enough to do it in front of the waiter.

“Yes, Clint. Please. I don’t mind if it’s cold.”

“Are you kidding? It’s not because it’s you that we’re going to serve cold. We have a reputation to hold!” Clint exclaimed before disappearing in the kitchens.

Thomas finally turned to face Newt but before any word could come out of his mouth he heard Brenda’s singing voice. “I’m back, are we good to go?”

Thomas didn’t answer, his mouth hanging, looking at Newt with wide eyes like a deer in the headlights. Brenda’s eyes traveled from Thomas to Newt and back to her boyfriend.

“Do you guys know each other?”

“No.” “Yes.” The men shot at the same time. Thomas coughed before correcting. “I mean, we do but…”

“Not really.” Newt finished with a smile. “We met the other day and talked for a bit. That’s it.”

“Oh, okay. I’m Brenda, Thomas’ girlfriend but more importantly, future pilot.” Brenda asserted playfully. “And you are?”

 “Newt. Nice to meet you.”  The blonde politely answered.

“Alright, can you drive me to work now Thomas?” Brenda turned to her boyfriend. He had picked her up for their weekly lunch so it was kind of his duty to bring her back. He had his day off today but she didn’t and neither of them wanted to cancel their usual Friday lunch.

“Sure, let’s go.” Thomas replied a little reluctantly, he would have rather stayed here to speak with Newt about his note.

“Have a nice day.” Newt moved aside to free the exit for the couple.

Thomas was pretty sure the blonde winked at him right before he left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know we don't have a lot of Newt so far but that's going to change in the next chapter!  
> I always love feedback <3 Hope you enjoyed :)


	3. A Feeling

Thomas kept on pacing on the sidewalk, biting his fingers anxiously. It had been over 10 minutes he was there, trying to reason himself.

Since his lunch with Brenda he had been rather busy at work and hadn’t had a lot of time to think about something else. A big file showed up Friday afternoon and Thomas had to work the whole weekend on it as well as part of the week.

But now it was the weekend again and Thomas didn’t have anything better to do than reread Newt’s note for the thousand time and overthink it. As soon as he’d left the restaurant, he’d wanted to go back to talk to Newt about it but he didn’t dare. After bringing Brenda back to the office, he had slowly driven past the restaurant and saw the blonde eating alone.

Thomas didn’t have enough courage to actually stop and enter. He didn’t know why this note was such a big deal for him though. Maybe Newt’s attitude. He had been kind of cheeky? Smiling mysteriously at him and winking when he was leaving. However, he also seemed to be genuinely interested when Thomas had explained his idea the first time.

The brunet plunged his hand into his jacket pocket to take out a crumpled piece of paper. He opened it slowly, holding his breath like the first time, and reread for the umpteenth time the note.

**“ _The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”_**

**I hope to have the chance to visit _The Maze_ one day.**

**Newt**

The words hadn’t changed and their true meaning was still a complete mystery to Thomas.

“Are you going to come in or do you intend to spend all day on that pavement?” Someone called him from behind. Thomas jumped in surprise and quickly thrust the paper back into his pocket before turning around to face… Newt.

His eternal smile flying over his lips, the man raised an eyebrow questioningly.

“So? What are you going to do?”

“Um, yeah, sorry. I was just… How do you know I was going to _The Glade_ anyway?” Thomas asked back to hide his embarrassment.

“Well, I saw you at this exact spot for the last fifteen minutes. Unless you’re lost, I guessed you wanted to enter the restaurant but didn’t dare to, for some reason.” Newt’s assessment sounded like a question and Thomas felt his face turn red. This was definitely one of his most embarrassing moment, Newt had been seeing him the whole time trying to make up his mind, unsuccessfully that went without saying.

“I got your note.” Was the only thing that came out of Thomas’ mouth.

“I thought so.” Newt nodded contemplatively. “How about we go inside to talk about it? It’ll be more comfortable.”

Thomas didn’t have time to answer that the blonde was already crossing the street, heading back towards _The Glade_. The brunet didn’t think twice about it and followed him.

*  *  *

“I thought you were a regular when I heard the waiter talking to you the other day. I wasn’t sure I’d see you there today though. Do you live here or something?” Thomas blurted, laughing a little to hide his anxiety. They had been sitting silently for a couple of minutes already, Newt looking straight toward him.

The blonde let a light laugh escape his lips before answered, shaking his head slowly. “No, I don’t live here. Well, I do live upstairs but to answer your question, I actually owe the place. Well, part of it.”

Thomas raised his eyebrows in surprise. He surely didn’t expect that.

“Frypan couldn’t afford it alone so a friend and I helped him a year ago.” Newt continued, shrugging as if it was nothing.

“Oh. Wow.” Was all Thomas managed to say.

“No big deal, he needed help and we could help so here we are. I’m sure you’d do the same for one of your friends.” Newt added with a smile.

“Yeah, definitely. If I had money. Sure.” Thomas blurted jokingly. “I mean, I can barely afford my own apartment. That’s one of the many obstacles to eventually creating The Maze actually. Which is why I came by the way. I meant to talk to you about the note.” The brunet’s last sentence sounded a bit questioning and Newt stayed silent for a moment.

“Ah, the note. What about it?” He finally asked.

“Well, did you mean it? That you would like to go to The Maze if it existed?” Thomas asked back, trying not to quote the note to not sound too pathetic. It was enough that Newt saw him outside the restaurant earlier.

“Of course.” Newt exclaimed immediately. “You didn’t say a lot about it but it seemed nice. Who doesn’t love theme parks? For sure you’d have at least two visitors: myself obviously, and my friend is a _huge_ theme parks lover.”

“Oh, well thanks, I guess? But I don’t know man. Since I saw you, I’ve been thinking about it a lot but I just don’t know. Where should I start, what are the priorities? I mean, I’ve never done that before! I have no idea how it’s supposed to go.” Thomas spitted out all of his recent thoughts, feeling completely helpless.

“It goes the way you want it to.” Newt said calmly. “There’s no perfect way to create your business. But a good starter would be to write all your thoughts down, cuz it’s seems like there’s a lot going on in that head of yours.” The blonde finished with a laugh.

“Oh, I didn’t think of that.” Thomas said, a bit speechless. “I mean, I did, but it was a year ago. I did some sketches and stuff but then I fought with my mom and all so I kind of let the project go…”

He sounded a bit sad, avoiding Newt’s eyes by looking at his hands which suddenly seemed very interesting. He was so excited back then, he remembered drawing The Maze at nights, jumping on a piece of paper and a pen every time a new idea crossed his mind.

And then, his mother gave him that ultimatum. He focused back on his studies full time. And when he had a little more time for his project, things weren’t going so well with Teresa anymore. They tried to make it work by changing small things but it wasn’t enough so they broke up. Thomas was desperate for a couple of months. But then he had to focus on his internship.

And finally he met Newt, and realized he had forgotten about _The Maze_ for quite some time already. He realized he missed the thrill he got every time he worked on the project.

“Why did you write the note? I mean there are thousands of people with a dream out there, why me?” Thomas finally asked, the curiosity supplanting his fear of the answer. Even if he didn’t know what he would like the answer to be.

Newt stayed silent for a minute. He seemed to be internally conflicted. But he finally replied with a sigh. “I don’t know really. There was just something about you, you looked passionate but also hopeless. I thought you could use some encouragements. It was a feeling… I can’t really explain.”

Thomas nodded as if he understood and, somehow, he did.

“Anyway, I need to get back to work. I’ll see you around I guess?” The blonde stood up and put a bag Thomas hadn’t noticed over his shoulder.

“Wait!” Thomas shout and he couldn’t help but cringe at his own desperate voice. “I could still need your... help.” He let out hesitantly. “I’m going to write all my ideas down but I’d like to talk with you about them. If you don’t mind, of course!”

Newt chuckled lightly. “It would be my pleasure Tommy. How about you come here next week? Let’s say Thursday at 8 pm. Sounds good?”

“Yes, that would be perfect.” Thomas answered relieved. He was afraid Newt was just going to disappear and he might not see him before months.

“I’ll tell Minho to come by, that guy is always full of ideas. He’s the friend fan of theme parks I told you about. And maybe you can bring Brenda? That way we’ll have a big brainstorming.” Newt added.

“Oh, okay. I mean, sure, great idea.” Thomas let out with a laugh that didn’t sound genuine to his own ears.

“Great. See ya then Tommy.”

And Newt left, patting Thomas’ shoulder on his way out.

The brunet couldn’t help but smile at the nickname, his cheeks flushing lightly.

“See ya.” He said back, so quietly he wasn’t sure the man heard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We'll learn more about Newt in the next chapter, and we'll finally see Minho, yay! ;)


End file.
